easy_downloader

One-method downloading, with error handling and friendly messages

Ruby

= easy_downloader

This is a dead simple, one-method downloader, with friendly error messages.

EasyDownloader reduces the amount of work required to setup and check for errors when downloading from another location. This
is useful when, for example, a client wants to you to pick a file up from their FTP, SFTP, or regular website on a nightly basis.
EasyDownloader gives you a one-method means of downloading those files, returns with a friendly error message if it fails
(geared at cron job notifications), or returns an array of file names it downloaded.

== Example

First, add the following to your Gemfile:

gem ‘easy_downloader’

Then, in your application:

my_results = EasyDownloader.download(
:type => :ftp,
:host => ‘127.0.0.1’,
:user => ‘app’,
:password => ‘example’
:remote_path => ‘/some/directory/IWantToChangeTo’
:remote_pattern => ‘.*.txt’
:local_path => Rails.root+‘/my_downloaded_stuff/’
)

my_results.results
=> “We found 1 file(s) to download with the following names:
#1. test_file.txt
Started downloading at Tue Dec 21 16:04:46 -0500 2010
Progress:
Starting to download test_file.txt
Finished downloading test_file.txt
Finished downloading at Tue Dec 21 16:04:46 -0500 2010
Downloaded 1 file(s)”

my_results.files
=> [‘test_file.txt’]

The returned object only has two attributes (did I mention this was dead simple):

result
files

The available keys are:

:type => (required) The protocal used to download the file. One of :sftp, :ftp or :http.
:host => (required) the domain of the remote server (source)
:remote_path => a relative path to “cd” into when we first access the remote server
:remote_pattern => a glob pattern that will select only the files we want to download.%
see Ruby’s core API if you are not familiar with this concept.

 NOTE: for *ftp* downloads, this matches a regular expression to the name of files in the current directory.
       for *Sftp* downloads, this uses the 'glob' pattern as mentioned above.

:user => a username or login used for authenticating on the server
:password => a password that, in combination with the user, will grant access to the remote server/host

== Contributing to easy_downloader

Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn’t been implemented or the bug hasn’t been fixed yet
Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn’t requested it and/or contributed it
Fork the project
Start a feature/bugfix branch
Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution
Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don’t break it in a future version unintentionally.
Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.